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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Uyghurs of China

The Uyghurs of China, numbering approximately 9,610,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Turkic people native to Central and East Asia, with their historic homeland centered in the region they call East Turkestan and that is today the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwestern China. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Uighur is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: Uyghur

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Turkic Peoples
Country: China
People Cluster: Uyghur
Primary Language(s): Uighur (uig)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 9,610,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024104
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Pray for the Uyghurs of China

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

99%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Uighur
Language Family: Turkic

100%
%
Uyghur Speakers

Media Resources in Uighur:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Uighur:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Hazirqi Zaman Uyghurche Terjimisi/ Modern Uyghur✓✓✓
Hazirqi Zaman Uyghurche Terjimisi/ Modern Uyghur✓✓✓

2 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Uighur bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Uyghurs are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Uyghurs:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Uyghurs of China

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
readLuke 1:46-47

Pray that those who are lost will recognize their need for a Savior and joyfully embrace the mercy that God offers.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
read2 Timothy 4:3-4

Pray that the lost will be open to the truth of the gospel and turn from false teachings and myths to the sound doctrine of Christ in faith.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
readRomans 12:1

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will offer their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, knowing that this is their spiritual worship.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
readRomans 6:23

Pray that God will bring people to faith who are excited about the eternal life they have in Christ and will want to cross cultures to share this hope with others.

Uyghur Across Countries (ROP3 - 110469) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

8 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress Index ▲LanguageReligion
UyghursPG011939UyghursSaudi Arabia9,500Unengaged and UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024104UyghursChina9,610,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024322UyghursUzbekistan66,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024329UyghursKazakhstan294,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024374UyghursKyrgyzstan27,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG024600UyghursTurkiye47,500Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG047221UyghursUnited States10,000Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam
UyghursPG050491UyghursCanada1,700Engaged yet UnreachedUighurSunni Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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